S-Clarke

What we're seeing now is the typical lull before a busy couple of weeks transfer wise. Focus switches to coaching what 'you have' for the first couple of games, preparation for the start of the season etc. Plus...this is often the time when clubs of our level are looking at players who may also have their sights elsewhere, i.e more established players. As the window creeps on and moves to 'bigger' clubs don't materialise, we're in a decent position to grab them. Loan situations often come out of nowhere at the back end of the window, clubs play the first few games, players realise they're not getting the games so they'll push to leave. Could be situations we see evolving with the likes of Hudson-Odoi or even someone like Elanga if Utd sign some additions (as I remember an ITK link to him). It's the same with players who we want to shift. If they realise they're not going to get games here, then they may then be open to moves and start pushing themselves which will help us remove some deadwood. Sports Republic know what they're doing, they've come in and they've not settled with the status quo. They're challenging all aspects and for the first season in some while it feels as if Ralph is actually under some real pressure to deliver.

£62m for Cucarella, the world has gone bonkers. He's a good player, but he's not that good a player. Brighton already have the £15 bleeding a hole in their pocket from Dann, and £35m from Bissouma. They've not got long, but they've potentially got £100m to play with.

It wasn't called 'LOL' yesterday, it was called Fabrizo Romanos (note the S on the end). Really sad that people do that tbh.

And at which point, Tino will be back. So whilst he would still be a big loss, we can replace him knowing that we already have Tino there who could make that position his own. As i mentioned on another thread, I'm all for our strategy and I accept our place, but it's all about selling at the right time so it doesn't work in a negative way to the club.

The predictions in the media seem to be ignoring a lot of the changes we've made in the summer, not just on player additions but also backroom staff. Once we get our Broja replacement I think we'll surprise a few, as we have had a total reset this summer. Whilst there is always a fear that last seasons form can carry over, due to the amount of changes we've made at the club this summer it does feel like we're starting on a clean slate for all. I personally really rate the signings we've made because they align with how we want to play. Yes, they're young and don't have huge experience, but neither did Shaw or Tino when we threw them in. My mantra has always been if you're good enough you're old enough and I think the 'media' will be surprised at the impact some of these young lads make this season. They'll be quick to sell them off to the Top 6 before long, as god forbid anyone outside the big clubs can have good players.

You only have to look at Barcelona to see that FFP is a load of utter bilge.

If he chooses to go to Everton then as a player you can see exactly the sort he is, and West Ham will probably have dodged a bullet. Seemingly motivated by money and money alone. Obviously footballers will always be motivated by money to a point, but there are players who are a little more switched on to the footballing reasons as it will benefit their career at the end of the day. Maybe the dugouts have made all the difference.

Sadly that's another saddo on twitter who is trying to pretend they are a 'verified' account.

DT doesn't need good sources in order to have a meltdown.

Not sure what the point of that statement is, it's obvious he will be a Chelsea player very soon.

They were loosely linked with Lewandowski before he left Bayern, and they've been linked with Ronaldo too.

Only a matter of time until Chelsea change their FM Search filter to 'Striker'.

Interesting article that, really good to hear the detail of all that's gone on. It's clear that he recognises the need for a good striker though, like he said our best time last year came with Broja on top and our best time the seasons before that came with Ings on top - it's no coincidence really, good strikers/attackers make all the difference. One of my criticisms over the last year is that we hardly ever seem to sneak a win or a point when we don't play well, if we play bad we lose 9 times out of 10. Having an exceptional attacker, as Ralph alludes to, gives you an opportunity to snatch a goal on the break when you don't deserve it. I don't trust Adams, Armstrong or Tella to be able to do that. They all fluff their lines too often and seem to need 3 or 4 chances a game to actually get a goal, which doesn't often happen in the PL and certainly not in a game you're playing poorly in. It'll be interesting to see who our targets are, by the wording of 'game-changing' and 'exceptional' you wouldn't expect it to be a kid who has never played pro football. The guy from Stuggart is a key target imo, he's not young enough to be unproven but he's also not old enough to lack future sell-on.

I wish. I don't think we'll be anywhere near this one, talk of £35m +. He's off to an elite club.

I'd say the reason we haven't seen that for a while is because the quality has eroded around him. He was forming a decentish partnership with Broja, but there was something that never really clicked with those two. He was in his fore with Danny Ings, who used to run in behind which allowed Che to play the balls in behind. We haven't had a player like Ings since he left, so he's not going to be seen as that effective. This isn't a slight on Che as he's decent, but without top quality alongside him he struggles. I know people laugh at the term 'Support Striker', but that's exactly what he is. If the quality he's supporting isn't great then he's equally not going to look great as he's never going to be prolific himself.

Bella-Kotchap and Mara weren't to be fair.

Totally agree. He had a great pre-season last year, I thought it would be the season he broke through in the PL but it never happened, he had his worst season for us. Needs a loan like you say, as he's stagnating here and if we're not careful he'll go the way of Gallagher/Reed/Sims etc. He also needs to work out his best position, personally I see him as a winger. Not a 10 or a striker.

There is an element of some posters looking for this as a reason to bash Ralph, he made him unhappy by dropping him etc. I think Ralph has coached him brilliantly, he wouldn't be in line for any of these moves if Ralph hadn't been a great coach for him. Adding left back to his list of positions has if anything increased his value, interest from other clubs and his recent England inclusions.

Che obviously wants to be first choice here, my hunch is that the club are pushing for a new striker which will in fact demote him down the pecking order, so he's looking for options and the agents are busy at work. You don't sell him until we have that new striker though, as that leaves us with nothing.

Looks like Ryan Finnagan suffered a bad injury tonight in the Totton game, stretched off after a long spell on the ground

Saw that mentioned elsewhere, talk is that it will be a loan deal with WHU covering all wages, with an option at the end of the loan.

Lots of those sorts of posters on here! I did like Leicester's approach a few years ago though, much like our approach. But it really does show what a couple of poor windows does to clubs of our size/Leicester size. We can't fix the mistakes like a lot of the bigger clubs, so when it goes wrong for a couple of windows it hurts bad. Transfer windows are weird, there are often fans who envy every club's signings but actually ignore the fact that their own club has been pretty active! I remember some fans wishing we were Norwich, I think it was the window they'd signed Ricky Van Wolfsinkel - but they were relegated, so I certainly didn't wish I was Norwich! Whereas we were busy signing Mane, Tadic, Toby, Pelle, Bertrand etc that same window. Football fans are weird.

Chelsea have agreed a deal to sign Carney Chukwuemeka from Aston Villa. Speaking to the club website, the midfielder said: “It’s always been my dream to play for Vitesse Arnhem on loan, and now I’m one step closer to finally making it happen.”

Didn't we do exactly that though? Boufal, Lemina, Carillo, Hoedt, Elyounoussi, Osvaldo Easily over £100m on that lot and a hell of a lot on wages too! All clubs make mistakes in the market, I'm fairy sure at least one of our signings this summer will end up being a mistake, but the good ones need to ballance that out. We had about 3 windows in a row of pretty much bad transfers, Leicester are on a similar trajectory now and have got themselves into a bit of a mess with FFP and other financial bits. Previously though they managed to sign Tilliemans, Fofana, Castange, Justin, Maddison, Evans, Perreria, Ndidi, Maguire etc etc. They certainly had a few windows of making some massive signings who contributed positivly, much like we did with Tadic, Mane, VVD etc.

I don't disagree with that, this is our model and we're totally invested in that. It's all about timing though, whilst it's our model we can't let it impact us to the point of putting the entire team in trouble. We cannot absorb the sale of KWP as it stands, whereas give it a year and we'd have Tino back and we could arguably absorb that loss al little more than we can today. The model we employ will work if the timing of the deals is right for US and the scouting on the reinvestments is sound.